Most millennials seen worse off than parents despite aptitude: study

ZURICH (Reuters) - Most millennials will struggle to earn more money and find better jobs than their parents despite being more highly trained, according to a study by Credit Suisse.

Employees react at their offices in the Manhattan South neighborhood in New York, May 14, 2015. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as being those born between 1982 and 2000 -- so between 35 and 17, now -- millennials face tougher borrowing rules, rising home prices, and lower income mobility, the study said.

“With the baby boomers occupying most of the top jobs and much of the housing, millennials are doing less well than their parents at the same age, especially in relation to income, home ownership and other dimensions of wellbeing,” the Swiss bank wrote in its annual Global Wealth report, published on Tuesday.

As a result only high achievers and those in lucrative areas like technology and finance have better prospects than their parents.

Overall, Credit Suisse found global wealth at mid-2017 totaled $280 trillion, up 6.4 percent year-on-year, the fastest pace of growth since 2012 thanks to surging equity markets and more valuable non-financial assets such as property.

However, the wealth is heavily concentrated.

Some 36 million millionaires making up less than 1 percent of the adult population own 46 percent of global household wealth; 70 percent of adults -- 3.5 billion people -- own less than $10,000 in assets and account for 2.7 percent of wealth.